Cloudflare is now the fastest provider in 74% of the 1,000 largest networks around the world, up from 60% in April 2026. This huge improvement matters because every millisecond affects how quickly users can reach the applications, APIs, and websites they rely on. In this Birthday Week performance update, we’ll review how we get our measurements, introduce a new measurement methodology using Cloudflare Challenge Pages, and discuss where these improvements have had the biggest impact for customers.
Cloudflare is fastest in 74% of top networks
In August, Cloudflare was the fastest provider in 74% of top networks, up 14 percentage points from our last update during Agents Week in April. The figure below shows the countries where Cloudflare is the fastest provider.
We improved from 60% to 74% by becoming the fastest provider in an additional 150 networks out of that top 1,000, and there are 38 additional countries where Cloudflare now ranks as the fastest. We measure this by looking at the fastest provider for users on the networks serving the largest number of users in each country.
The graphic below shows countries where Cloudflare has become the fastest provider across those networks since April.
Here you see the number of additional networks on which Cloudflare is now the fastest.
How do we get these measurements?
Our analysis begins with the 1,000 largest networks in the world, ranked by estimated user population using data from APNIC. Because these networks cover users across a wide range of geographies and access environments, they give us a useful view into how people actually experience the Internet.
For each network, we evaluate performance using connection time: the amount of time required for a user’s device to complete a TCP handshake when requesting content. We use this because it maps closely to what people think of as a “fast” user experience. It reflects real-world factors such as distance, routing, and congestion, while still being specific enough for us to compare providers and identify where performance can improve.
To rank providers, we calculate the trimean
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Source: Cloudflare Blog (Published: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT). Read the full article on the original site.
